Jeffrey Epstein reportedly housed several women he allegedly abused in a number of flats across London, despite theMet Policereceiving a report of sex trafficking in 2015.
ABBCinvestigation found Epstein had rented four flats in Kensington and Chelsea, with six of the women housed in them since coming forward as victims of the convicted paedophile.
Some of these women had been coerced into recruiting others, and were regularly transported to Paris by the Eurostar to visit him, including 10 times during the final six months of his life.
Several of the women had been brought to the UK from Russia and eastern Europe, even afterVirginia Giuffrereported Epstein to the Metropolitan Police in 2015.
In early 2020, a second woman had reported the abuse to the Met, but it is unclear if this complaint was acted on.
The Met said it followed “reasonable lines of inquiry” at the time, and had interviewed Ms Giuffre on multiple occasions after she made her report.
Tessa Gregory, a human rights lawyer with Leigh Day, said that she was “staggered” that no UK police investigation had ever been launched into Epstein’s activities.
“Where there are credible allegations of human trafficking, the UK state, even if no victims come forward, has a positive legal obligation to conduct a prompt, effective and independent investigation,” she said.
The BBC was able to track down the locations of the flats through examining Epstein’s 10,000-page credit card bill, as well as following a shipment of gifts and examining the exterior of a flat that led to a tenancy agreement.
Despite being located in one of London’s most affluent neighbourhoods, the flats could be crowded with women sleeping on sofas.
Upon being confronted with the living conditions, Epstein responded angrily and swore at one woman, telling her she had “disgusting behaviour” and was a “brat who has yet to accept responsibility”.
Documents seen by the BBC show that women were coerced into recruiting other young girls, with one sending Epstein pictures of “cute” models for his approval.
The disgraced financier also paid for at least five women to study in London, with payments for course fees at English language colleges.
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Between 2011 and 2019, he purchased at least 53 tickets to transport women between England and France on the Eurostar, sometimes taking advantage of reduced youth fares for under-25-year-olds.
One woman was transported just 16 days before his arrest, which led to his death in prison in 2019 in a suspected suicide.
The investigation also uncovered more than 120 private and commercial flights linked to Epstein arriving and departing from the UK, some of which had victims on board.
In their attempts to track down former UK-based employees who had worked for Epstein, the BBC visited the home of a former member of his household staff who answered the door buzzer but ignored their requests to talk.
She had remained in close contact with the financier, sending him affectionate emails, which included “I always think of you. All my love always” in 2016.
A man suspected of being his driver also blocked BBC journalists on WhatsApp.
The Metropolitan Police reiterated in 2016, 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2025 that it believed “other international authorities were best placed” to investigate Epstein, and despite interviewing Ms Giuffre three times, officers found that “no allegation of criminal conduct was made against any UK-based individual”.
Scotland Yard said it was “fully engaged” alongside other forces in the National Police Chiefs’ Council group established following the release of the Epstein files.
Kevin Hyland, a former senior detective with the Met Police who was the UK’s first independent anti-slavery commissioner, said that there had been missed opportunities to investigate the serial offender.
“People are outraged that somebody came forward and said, ‘I was trafficked by this man,’ and yet he was just allowed to carry on. Who in the police made that decision?” he said.
Other British authorities had passed on details of Epstein’s activities to the FBI, including the National Crime Agency, which sent financial intelligence showing payments to a Coutts bank for the rent of a Chelsea flat where he housed victims.
Lisa Phillips, an Epstein survivor, toldBBC Newsnightlast week that “a lot of women came forward in the UK whether through their attorney, or through the Metropolitan Police, or their local police station” and is calling for a public inquiry because “we can find out what went wrong and how to prevent it in the future”.
The Metropolitan Police has been contacted byThe Independentfor comment.
